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Rural Development Notes

CBSE Notes

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Harsha Amlani
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
33 views5 pages

Rural Development Notes

CBSE Notes

Uploaded by

Harsha Amlani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Rural Economic development is essential for Indian Economic development

 Mahatma Gandhi had always maintained that the real growth


of India lies in the growth of villages. The
 importance of rural development in India lies in the fact that
2/3rd of the population still (directly or indirectly) depends on
agriculture.
 Around 1/3rd of the rural population still lives in abject
poverty.
What is Rural Development?
Rural development is quite a comprehensive term but it essentially means
a plan of action for the development of rural areas which are lagging
behind in socio-economic development.

Focus areas of Rural Development


Development of Human Capital
Land reforms
Development of productive resources
Infrastructure development
Alleviation of poverty
Two-thirds of the Indian population is dependent on agriculture,
yet its contribution to GDP is low:
 A decline in public investment since 1991.
 Inadequate infrastructure
 Lack of alternate employment opportunities in the secondary
or tertiary sector
 Increasing casualization of employment.

Credit and Marketing in Rural Areas


Role of Credit:
1. To realize higher productivity in agriculture and non-
agriculture sectors.
2. Farmers borrow from various sources to meet their initial
investment in seeds, fertilizers, implements, and other family
expenses of marriage, death, religious ceremonies, etc.
Sources of Credit:
Informal Sources: Money lenders, traders, friends, etc.
Formal Sources: Institutions like commercial banks, regional rural banks
(RRBs), cooperatives, and land development banks.
 The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
(NABARD) was set up in 1982 as an apex body to coordinate
the activities of all institutions involved in the rural financing
system.
 The Green Revolution brought major changes in the credit
system as it led to the diversification of the portfolio of rural
credit towards production-oriented lending.
Self-Help Groups (SHGs)/Micro-credit Programmes:
 Poor women or women who do not have any collateral, were
excluded from formal institutions of credit.
 With Self-Help Groups, women are able to avail credit, with
reasonable repayment plans.
 Further, SHGs also receive funds as Community Investment
Support Funds, to create self-employment
 SHGs not only make credit accessible to poor women but also
provide them with opportunities to generate their own income
and make decisions.
 SHGs foster a sense of community since the credit is
disbursed from a pool of money contributed by all. This also
holds them accountable to the group.
 SHGs allow rural women to be financially empowered.
Critical Appraisal of Rural Banking
Rapid expansion of the banking system had a positive effect on rural farm
and non-farm output, income, and employment. In spite of this, the
following problems have been faced in rural banking such as-

 The volume of rural credit in the country is still insufficient in


comparison to its demand and institutional sources have failed
to cover the entire rural farmers of the country.
 With the possible exception of commercial banks, other formal
institutions have failed to develop a culture of deposit
mobilization — lending to worthwhile borrowers and effective
loan recovery.
 Agriculture loan default rates have been chronically high.
Jan Dhan Yojana
All adults are encouraged to open bank accounts as a part of a scheme
known as Jan-Dhan Yojana. Those bank account holders can get ₹ 1-2 lakh
accidental insurance coverage and overdraft facilities for ₹ 10,000 and get
their wages if they get any government-related jobs and works under
MNREGA; old age pension and other social security payments of the
government are transferred to bank accounts.

This has led to more than 40 crore people opening bank accounts;
indirectly it has promoted thrift habit and efficient allocation of financial
resources particularly in rural areas.

Agricultural Market System


Agricultural Marketing: It is a process that involves the assembling,
storage, processing, transportation, packaging grading, and distribution of
different agricultural commodities across the country.
Problems in Agricultural Marketing
 Farmers, while selling their produce to traders, suffer from
faulty weighing and manipulation of accounts.
Farmers who do not have the required information on prices
prevailing in markets are often forced to sell at low prices.
 They also do not have proper storage facilities to keep their
produce for selling later at a better price.
Steps taken by the government in developing rural markets.
 Regulation of markets to create orderly and transparent
marketing conditions.
 provision of physical infrastructure facilities like roads,
railways, warehouses, godowns, cold storage, and processing
units.
 Cooperative marketing, in realizing fair prices for farmers’
products, is the third aspect of government initiative.
 The fourth element is the policy instruments like
 assurance of minimum support prices (MSP) for
agricultural products
 maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by
the Food Corporation of India and
 distribution of food grains and sugar through PDS.
Emerging Alternate Marketing Channels
 It has been realized that if farmers directly sell their produce
to consumers, it increases their incomes. Some examples of
these channels are
 Apni Mandi
 Hadaspar Mandi
 Rythu Bazars
 Uzhavar Sandies.
 Further, several national and multinational fast food chains
are increasingly entering into contracts/alliances with farmers
to encourage them to cultivate farm products (vegetables,
fruits, etc.) of the desired quality by providing them with not
only seeds and other inputs but also assured procurement of
the produce at pre-decided prices.
Diversification into Productive Activities
Diversification includes two aspects -
 Change in cropping pattern
 A shift of workforce from agriculture to other allied activities
(livestock, poultry, fisheries etc.) and non-agriculture.
Need for Diversification in rural areas
 Reduces the risk of depending on farming for livelihood.
 To provide productive sustainable livelihood options to rural
people.
 To provide supplementary employment during rabi season.
 To remove surplus labor from the agricultural sector to non-
farm sectors.
Animal Husbandry
 Livestock production provides increased stability in income,
food security, transport, fuel, and nutrition for the family
without disrupting other food-producing activities.
 Provides alternate livelihood options to small and marginal
farmers including landless laborers.
 A significant number of women also find employment in the
livestock sector.
Poultry accounts for the largest share in the distribution of livestock in
India.

Milk production in the country has increased by about ten times between
1951-2016. This can be attributed mainly to the successful
implementation of ‘Operation Flood’.
It is a system whereby all the farmers can pool their milk produced
according to different grading (based on quality), processed, and
marketed to urban centers through cooperatives.

In this system, the farmers are assured of a fair price and income from the
supply of milk to urban markets.

Fisheries
65%35%Fish Production DistributionInland SourcesMarine Sector
Problems in this sector:
 Low per capita earnings
 Underemployment and rampant poverty among fishermen
 High illiteracy and indebtedness
 Absence of mobility to other sectors.
Horticulture
India has adopted the growing of diverse horticultural crops such as fruits,
vegetables, tuber crops, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, spice,
and plantation crops.

Role of horticulture:
 The horticulture sector contributes nearly 1/3rd of the value of
agriculture output and 6% of the Gross Domestic Product of
India.
 The economic condition of many farmers engaged in
horticulture has improved and it has become a means of
improving livelihood for many unprivileged classes.
 Flower harvesting, nursery maintenance, hybrid seed
production and tissue culture, propagation of fruits and
flowers, and food processing are highly remunerative
employment options for women in rural areas.
Other Alternate Livelihood Options (Role of IT)
 Governments can predict areas of food insecurity and
vulnerability using appropriate information and software tools.
 It also has a positive impact on the agriculture sector as it can
disseminate information regarding emerging technologies and
their applications,
 It also has potential for employment generation in rural areas.
Sustainable Development and Organic
Farming
Oraganic Farming: Organic farming is a method of agricultural
production that focuses on cultivating crops and raising livestock in a way
that is environmentally sustainable and minimizes the use of synthetic
chemicals and artificial additives. It emphasizes natural and holistic
approaches to farming, with the aim of promoting soil health, biodiversity,
and the overall well-being of the ecosystem.
Benefits of Organic Farming:
 Organic agriculture offers a means to substitute costlier
agricultural inputs (such as HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers,
pesticides, etc.) with locally produced organic inputs that are
cheaper and thereby generate good returns on investment.
 Organic agriculture also generates income through exports as
the demand for organically grown crops is on the rise.
 Organically grown food has more nutritional value than
chemical farming thus providing us with healthy foods.
 Since organic farming requires more labor input than
conventional farming, it generates employment opportunities.
 Finally, the produce is pesticide-free and produced in an
environmentally sustainable way.
Challenges in Organic Farming:
 Needs to be popularized
 Inadequate marketing
 Less output as compared to traditional farming
 Shorter shelf life of products
 Limited choice of produce.

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